Most Prestigious Companies To Work For

Landing a job at a prestigious firm in your industry could set you up for success throughout the rest of your career, so what are the most prestigious companies to work for?

If you’re an ambitious business school student considering life after graduation, deciding which companies to apply for can be a challenge.

Whether you aspire to be an investment banker or a management consultant, there are many things you need to consider when deciding your target companies after you graduate from your MBA or business master’s.

Key factors include your future progression opportunities, the salary and benefits on offer, work-life balance, and company culture. Also important is company prestige —few things can have as large a career impact as having a name like ‘McKinsey’ or ‘Goldman Sachs’ on your resume.

So which companies hold the most weight in their respective industries? What are the most prestigious companies to work for?

Each year, careers platform Vault, ranks the most prestigious companies to work for across key graduate industries including consulting, investment banking, and accounting.

To find the five most prestigious companies to work for in each industry, BusinessBecause delved into the lists for 2023.

5 Most Prestigious Accounting Firms

As of 2022, 88% of audits of large-scale, publicly traded companies in the US were conducted by the Big Four accounting and professional services firms. It comes as little shock, then, that Deloitte, PwC, EY, and KPMG each rank among the top five most prestigious accounting firms to work for after graduating from business school.

Outside of the Big Four, there are many firms who conduct accountancy practices on a smaller scale. The most prestigious of these firms, according to Vault, is Grant Thornton.

Ranked fifth in 2023, Grant Thornton operates out of 53 offices across the globe. It began as an offshoot of EY in 1924 and has since gone on to become a prestigious employer of talent, renowned for a strong work-life balance offer.

Next in the list is KPMG. Ranked as the fourth most prestigious accounting firm—and therefore the least prestigious of the Big Four, according to Vault—KPMG employs more than 35,000 people in more...